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Topic: Ambient music creation for everyone! (Read 1335 times)

Thanks to Tomas Weiss (El culto) for posting the 80 minute Eno interview recently. In it Eno mentioned a iPad app he had developed called Scape. This is it. It is quite amazing and I have been making scapes for a few weeks now, in fact I bought an iPad just because I wanted this app. I often create a scape and just let it evolve instead of putting on music in the studio, change elements from time to time and.....well its just really fun, actually its just very ambient for anyone. It does benefit to send the sound signal through some reverb/effects which may not be readily available to non musicians but as I have discovered theres lots of ways to do so within the iPad environment for a few $.

Do you remember when "Drum Machines" came out and human drummers could not get gigs anymore.....

Yes I will post some Scapes......good idea Tomas. Actually running the ipad output through my studio reverb which is an Eventide Eclipse the Scape sounds incredible. They still sound good unprocessed but do benefit from some additional space. I ran one Scape last night form about 5.30pm to about 11.45 pm and every so often would add a new element or change the mood. Amazing!

You can also take snap shots of your Scapes for playback at another time but they cannot be edited any further.

I hope ambient music fans with iPads download this.....it is an educational tool as well IMHO as you will be doing what musicians do with layering sounds and textures hands on without the need of really any musical skills except your ears. Just remember to check back in and support your favorite musicians.

FYI.....the full app has to be unlocked in the iPad settings which gives you quite alot more elements to use. In the settings it says that this is not recommended I believe because it also gives you the chance to change the pitch and scale which could mess things up if your not musically minded. I thought the video shown here was the prototype or perhaps the computer version as my Scape originally was not the same as the one in the video. Once unlocked it was the same.... Cant imagine why nothing was mentioned about this on the website. Eno being Eno?

I put this topic here for maximum exposure as it could get lost in the gear or tech section of the forum.

I think it does sound like Eno if you want it to.....put it through some deep space verb and it sounds like Roach, well not really but you get the idea. I bet this app was a spin off from the software for 77 million paintings and theres a certain phrasing to the app that reminds me of "Lux"When the app boots it credits Eno with Synths, found sounds, Field recordings etc......as sound source for my own music, certainly not by itself. I had it going in the background and play the matrix 12 with interesting results.

I will get some Scapes up for you to hear but really I think this is just something fun for everyone to play with and could be a source of maybe just inspiration.

I don't think Eno has posted any Creative Commons permissions anywhere for music from any of his music apps or given "verbal" permissions for re-use like the FM3 Buddha Machine - though I'm sure it just happens.

We're a month or two away from releasing a dreamSTATE "iAlbum" which I've always seen as an infinite dreamSTATE album with user control over the mixes - but which our programmer has encouraged us to allow CC re-usages. I still haven't made up my mind on that front.

Here are two Scapes I did last night. They are recorded live with no overdubs or editing . Scape 1 has some clean external reverb and delay. Scape 2 has your typical "Lost in space" fx. Theres some quasi software mastering on the bonce to disk bus....Eq, compression & Limiting. The files are 16bit@44.1...cd quality.

Performance wise Im doing nothing more than what the video up top shows with usually no more then 8 elements at one time changeing them and the mood as I feel......enjoy

While using Scape Ive been receiving messages like...."make a cloud", "use only high notes", "create a contrast", "use only the extremes" "go read a book"....for example. Seems to me Scape has its own Oblique Strategies in the app.

For me the two tracks illustrate that Scape does not sound like Eno, that is to my ear. Cant say for sure what it does sound like and thats really not important. If someone released music composed solely with Scape it might color my thoughts as wells...knowing the app I would be interested to hear what they came up with, as I would if you made music with it Pete or Tomas & Loren. Serious musicians playing with an interesting and unusual toy, sorry....App. Actually not such a bad idea.